I do not live around a bse and I have not for many years now. As a recruiter I do make my way down to JBLM every once in a while and when I am there I usually stop at Clothing and Sales along with the PX. As I am walking through, in my uniform, I see many junior Soldiers that look away or down at the ground when they walk past me instead of giving the greeting of the day. What is with new Soldiers trying to get out of doing the very basic Soldier duties? How can we as Noncommissioned Officers change this? What do you think has led to the change in basics like this?
I cannot say that I am perfect in doing this with everyone that I walk by. There are times I will pass a fellow Staff Sergeant and they will give the greeting of the day and add Sergeant to the end of it. I am not that formal with my peers but I always return the greeting. Also, I cannot say that I chase down every Soldier I walk by that purposely ignores me and tell them that they are not showing proper respect by giving the greeting of the day. I don't believe I would ever complete the task I was there to complete if I did this.
When I go back to a normal unit, this will be one thing that I press on my Soldiers. Unless they are engaged in something that you would be distracting them from (another conversation, etc.) you better give anyone that out ranks you a proper greeting.
Soldiers
I can see where "people are busy" we all are. But...that does not mean that we cannot be polite and courteous to each other. That is discipline. If a 19 year old (pick a branch) sees my old and gray head, it should be pretty dad gum obvious that I have been around for a minute. And that is if I happen to be sporting some civvies. If I am in uniform, and that same young SM walks by with nary a mention, it is disrespectful.
Nobody is so busy that they should walk around, head down, not looking around or paying attention. Show some pride.
Just my opinion.
I understand where you are coming from; the greeting of the
day is nothing new to people that have been in for a few years. Some commands
do not require a greeting of the day or the greeting of the day is limited to
certain areas on the base.
Some people would argue that not having a greeting of the
day given is a lack of discipline, I would disagree. If any soldier is worried
about not receiving a greeting of the day, they have too little on their
respective plate to do. Not trying to
say you are the latter type of soldier but I am sure there are more pressing
things to do as a recruiter (there was when I was a recruiter) then worry about
what a junior soldier would say or not say in passing.
CW3 LaMothe,
I understand and for the most part I agree. There are a lot of other things to worry about with our day to day operations. I think the reason this sticks out to me so much is that I am not around these situations very often and this is my only real interaction with Soldiers that currently serve. I am glad to know that there are actual reasons for it though. I was thinking that maybe this was something that had been done away with in Basic Training. Now that there may be command restrictions on it that makes it easier to understand. I have to say I don't entirely agree with it but I understand it.
SSG Ryan
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google